The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Philippines’ national esports team, SIBOL, wrapped up its 33rd Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) campaign with their four consecutive gold in the Men’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) event and back-to-back silver medal in the Women’s division.
“Generally, the results were better than we expected. Coming into this, I think we had realistic expectations. To be honest, I think we’re really getting good at predicting the results of the teams that we are fielding. That also means that we have a better understanding of what we can improve on, what more we can prepare, and, of course, what more we can sustain so we can continue improving the results.” said SIBOL General Manager, Leo “Jab” Escutin.
Since the introduction of esports in the Southeast Asian Games, SIBOL has been consistent in bringing home the gold in the Men’s Division of MLBB. Jungler Karl Nepomuceno, who was part of the 2019 roster, secured his second gold as SIBOL swept Malaysia, 4-0, in the Men’s Gold Medal Match.
The Women’s Division of MLBB was first introduced in the previous games hosted by Cambodia and SIBOL finished behind rivals Indonesia. In this year’s games, SIBOL met Indonesia in the semifinals but was able to avenge their 2023 defeat. In the gold medal match against Malaysia, SIBOL gave it their all but would fall short of the gold once more, seeing a heartbreaking 3-4 result.
Besides the MLBB events, SIBOL also participated in the Men’s Division of Arena of Valor, finishing behind strong contenders Laos, Vietnam and Thailand while at the demonstration event of Magic Chess: Go Go, SIBOL finished second.
“I still consider [SIBOL’s SEA Games run] a success, specifically because we defended our MLBB gold medal. We’ll develop more strategies. We already have initial strategies on how to improve our performance, especially in [the] women’s [division]. Look forward to our domination as we move forward to the next campaign, which is the most important one, the Asian Games.” said Marlon Marcelo, Executive Director of the Philippine Esports Organization.
The 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan will continue to have esports as a medal event, after debuting in the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. The continued inclusion of esports in the Asian Games marks a significant milestone in the sport’s growing mainstream acceptance, building on its recognition as a medal event across the past four editions of the SEA Games.
“Next year is a really important year for us because it’s going to be our Asian Games run. We are preparing something very, very different. I think the fans can expect a different kind of SIBOL in terms of the strength that the team will bring to the Asian Games.” said Escutin.